Lead the way!
by CrayonCalendar
Summary: Vanille and Fang wake up in a new world, after the events.


I

Argyle felt and string, and various luxurious clothing hung around the long black figures hidden away in the darkness. She was a mysterious blue, though covered in dirt, and her thin physique nor her strange pose matched those of the taller, straighter ladies beside her. Her motionless hands were curled and pointed towards the ground. She would have looked ridiculous squatting among them, if it wasn't for the great crimson robe she wore; adorned with otherworldly symbols engraved on its golden hems, concealing most of her. Only those close enough could see the small whites of her crystal hands, lips and cheek.

Beyond the cold darkness, there was a constant, muffled thumping sound, over distant floors, sharp enough to give the distinction of something metal clambering on an equally hard surface. It pealed across the large lobby-like room, in varying remoteness and in uneven stanzas, giving the place a nightmarish quality.

And with time, a new sound could be heard. From a God's magic, from her crystal; her transformation back into human.

As she awoke, the dying sounds and a large cloak attempting to break her fall were the first things to enter her mind. Her body was in motion, red hair and pigtails falling freely to the marble floor. She tasted oxygen and saliva before realising, that what she was staring at right now with open emerald eyes, was nothing but complete darkness.

She had been crystalised, her focus completed. Cocoon's fate and the fate of all of her comrades...

She alarmingly looked around the dark, echoey place she found herself inside, the darkness not seeming to ease on her eyes, leaving her with just the unknown sounds from beyond.

Where was she? Had she done it? Saved the lives of her friends, of Cocoon? Was there still a world to get back to?

All she knew was that she was alive and breathing... Fang.

"Fang?" The redhead called out and around her, and into the darkness.

She began to crawl back and forth in the dark, searching with her hands, not wanting to crawl too far away, and miss Fang. Otherwise, she would have bolted away right now as fast as she could.

She bumped into something light, hearing and feeling the air as it, and whatever had supported it toppled over. Everything else soon toppled over after it, redhead included.

"Aaaaahh!"

As soon as her panic subsided, in breaths, she felt over the mystery objects that had broken her fall. She realised that they were all adult-sized dolls; made of plastic, and dressed in animal fur, namely she could tell after a moment, of a lobo. Ever aware of the biting cold around her, she grabbed it and flung it around her shoulders.

Seconds more of searching around her, the redhead realised, fearfully, that Fang wasn't there with her. Of course she wasn't. She'd have transformed with her.

They were apart. Once the realization hit, that she was entirely and utterly alone, a cry threatened to gurgle out of her mouth, being ripped from her chest.

Why hadn't she been with her?

She forcibly calmed herself down, enough to think rationally—and she noted that she had indeed become strong, over her tumultuous time as a renegade l'cie.

She found herself sitting awkwardly on the marble floor. She stood up, with the idea that Fang probably wasn't there with her, and gave the darkness an indirect, resolute glare. Maybe she was still in a sort of lull from her crystalisation, but she was able to easily let go of her fear.

Soon she was walking in a single direction, hands out in front of her as her eyes were adjusting to the dark, hoping to find a wall and then maybe a door leading out. Soon her hand found a metal railing instead, a little below shoulder height, slanting diagonally downwards. Underneath it was steel, she realised it was steps leading down, and there was more light coming from this area; she hoped that descending these steps would lead to more light.

And luckily for her it did, steel steps were replaced by solid stairs, which lead to an open doorway, of Cocoonian design. The room she was now in was illuminated by the moon, and so she found the nearest window and peered outside. And she saw it.

The grand, wide, bright modern metropolis of the place she'd found herself inside. As dense as Eden, the Cocoon city, and with no end in sight. The moon wasn't to thank for illuminating the room. It was probably this sea of lights, that lured everything to them, she was mind blown. Was this even Gran Pulse?

She quickly tried to gather her wits, she was on a mission and had no time for gawking. Find Fang... and then... she gulped. Finding Fang, and then maybe understanding what happened to all of her comrades, were her priorities. Nothing like a focus.

As she once again peered outside, it hit her. How was she going to find Fang, in an 'Eden' as big and as wide as this? And then, why were they separated in the first place? She should have been with her, but she wasn't. There were so many questions in her mind, and she feared being overwhelmed by them.

All she knew, was that just standing around inside this foreign tower, being held by some unknown captor, wouldn't help her. She needed to find answers.

She made it her ultimatum to stop fussing, and believe that Fang was fine, wherever she may be, until she got more clues to where she could've gone. She left the room with vigour in hope of finding the huntress, and the ample time to do it with the health of being alive, in this new modern world. Despite returning to the cool darkness as she left the window.

Soon, she stumbled into a thin, hallway-like room, which she hoped would hold stairs or something like a lift, that would lead her down to the ground. She accidentally bumped into a small table, which happened to have a vase on top of it, which she assumed with the crashing sound it made when it hit the floor.

"Oopsie!" She exclaimed quite nonchalantly.

Suddenly, she heard a loud beeping sound, from close proximity, right above her and to her side. She quickly looked up to see a tall, bipedal automaton shining a light down her face. She fell to her knees as she looked away, eyes dazed by the lights. The automaton that had appeared out of nowhere started making noises, which could indicate some sort of information process going on inside its head.

She wouldn't trust this thing, so vehemently backed away from it as she grabbed a sharp looking object which she made out off the floor, as she got to her feet.

She examined the weapon in her hands.

It was a gunblade. Lightning's weapon.

How did a thing like that get here? Though as soon as she thought that, the automaton started crying, and it utmostly worried the alert redhead that more might come.

She now officially didn't want to fight this thing, and so with the gunblade in hand, she ran as far away as she could from it, hoping she'll find a stairway in the process. And her intuition paid off, but not in the way she would like. The automaton made its intentions very clear when it suddenly attacked her by extending one of its mechanical arms in a thrust. It punctured the wall of the room she found cover in with a cracking boom.

"Aaahh!" she cried as she fell again, plaster and dust scattering throughout the room. She began coughing, but was still alert to the closing in automaton. She instantly reached out her hand and released, what she hoped would come out an an electric spell, at its direction.

Nothing came out.

Where had her l'Cie powers gone? The robot appeared through the dust, and was close enough the prone redhead could count the lights on its face, and retracting its arm, what came next was fairly simple. She leapt to her toes.

It attacked, trying to puncture her stomach with its second attack, but she only had to jump seconds before its movement, to avoid it. Unlike the old, rusty automatons she and her comrades fought in armies in the tunnels of Mah'habara, this machine was faster, more deadlier. More recently built.

The redhead ran into the next room, her heart holding fear of her life—she felt her blood pumping. It was a Cocoonian kitchen—with nowhere else to go.

How could she stop this thing? Her spells were gone, so was her wand...

The young woman looked at the gunblade in hand, and pushed back the blade, which was so sharp it could slightly cut the side of her hand. She couldn't possibly use this blade, but maybe all this robot needed was a few shots to the head.

Worth a shot. She pictured Fang saying this to her many years before, on the windy plains of Oerba. When she was forced to learn how to use the wand she was now proficient at using; in order to capture animals, and protect her meek self. Fang always found the knack for things so easily, from such a young age. She was so strong, a fit warrior; the redhead knew that, now more than ever she had to channel this strength, which she would do at times such as these. She had to be Fang, for Fang. And the automaton entered the kitchen, and Vanille, trapped, on the opposite side of the room, stared it down.

She quickly, adamantly raised her right arm, and flicked her gunblade as she had seen Lightning do so countless times before... although flicked wasn't the right word for it, she'd imagine.

What she did instead, was fling the gunblade at the opposite side of the room, it hitting the tiled wall the automaton stood afront.

Should've channeled being Lightning instead, the redhead thought darkly, grimacing. She was going to die now, all thanks to a stupid blunder.

With slight notice, the creature mercilessly attacked again, this time with both of its arms—she tried to evade it by jumping to her right in cover of the table, and barely, was successful. She screamed, her bare hip was hit, scratched and bleeding from shrapnel of the table, the clothes around it torn. But she sensed she had to escape with this opportunity, and kicked off the floor.

She ran at the direction of the tall robot, saw the gunblade atop the ever convenient kitchen bench, so grabbed it while she ducked underneath its metal arms, and ran for it, scanning the dark rooms for a stairway.  
She could make out walls and to her great relief, she found one. She ran down the new stairwell in a frenzy. Barely making a conscious effort to keep her balance. She tumbled and fell to the floor near the end of some steps, after climbing down more than a dozen storeys, and was lucky not to have landed awkwardly.

She surveyed her damage, believing to have created ample distance between her and the automaton.

Her hip wasn't bleeding profusely, partially obstructed by her coat, and she had bruised her right foot, but could still walk or run on it. There were some other minor cuts, from splinters, and bruises but nothing major.

She continued climbing down the stairwell, in a more cautious pace for what could lay ahead. She really didn't have a plan, just to get to the exit of here; and when she left another set of steps, "Vanille!"

The redhead spun around, her heart jumping to her throat.

Fang.

That familiar voice set aside all negativity in Vanille's mind, her eyes beamed when the silhouette ran into view, confirming her ease of heart.

"Fang-!"

"How did you get here?" The black-haired woman asked, as she tightly embraced the redhead in a hug.

"I-I was looking for you! I can't believe it's you!" the younger woman replied, tightening her grip around Fang.

"Now, now, easy there. ...You're bleeding?"

Vanille was taking the time to fully embrace Fang. "What happened?" Fang asked seriously.

"I was attacked, by this automaton." She sounded out in soft sobs. Fang pushed away from the hug, noticing her reddened, albeit happy eyes, then rested her hands on the redhead's shoulders, brown-eyes showing familiar seriousness.

"Where is it now? Did you beat it? How did you get there anyway?" The latter question pulled Vanille, making her rethink her initial answer.

"No. I have no idea. I had to run away from it. I can't use magic anymore."

Fang brandished her spear in Vanille's view asking confidently, "Where is it? Let's defeat it, maybe we'll find answers if we go there—to the place you'd woken up, before we get all gooey-eyed." Fang continued with a small smile, "We might get a better idea of where we are, of why we were separated. Some blood clue—over here I got nothin'."

Vanille accepted this, now not withholding her grin. "Sure. Let's go."

The redhead indicated the stairway up, and both started climbing it. It wasn't long before Fang took the lead from her, noticing Vanille's sprained foot.

"I can't believe you ran into something," the huntress continued. "Damn it's dark in here, why is the darn power not working?" They had already climbed a couple of storeys, taking up a cautious speed in their approach.

"How did you end up over there?" Vanille wondered aloud as her eyes peered down the nice looking stairwell, barely able to see anything past the last few storeys. "I woke up like only an hour ago. What about you?"

Fang looked forward at the dark. "Around the same time as you, maybe half an hour or almost an hour," Vanille skipped beside her, now feeling like one of the happiest girls in the world. "Back in the real world, huh?" She said.

Fang stopped trodding for a moment. "Drives me crazy just thinking about what happened to us." Vanille knew straight away what she was thinking about.

"We fulfilled our focus." Vanille set aloud.

"Yeah, we did. We beat the fal'Cie together, with them, and then... we..."

"We're like war heroes or something... just not the kind they'd, or we'd have ever expected to be. We rescued Cocoon, in our own way... We did it for Cocoon." Vanille held solemn eyes at Fang's appraisal of the events prior to this day.

"For the rest of humanity, and the other Pulse l'Cie too," the redhead added. Fang could hear the sadness in Vanille's voice at the end of the statement, and could totally relate to her own feelings of heartache, nodding.

I wonder what happened to them, was a sentence that couldn't roll off Fang's mouth, but was materialised seconds after.

"I wonder what happened to them all." Vanille said.

"C'mon," Fang chirped up, "first things first, we better understand where we are, and when we are—if this is even Gran Pulse. We'll just keep moving, and staying alive, and we'll find those answers." After a moment, she continued, "Though, much like yourself I feel like dealing with these things in my mind now." Vanille pouted, as they continued moving again.

"We're only up against a stupid, ol' robot." Fang raised her brow at that, then lowered it, then wide eyed.

"Hey-is that...?"

She pointed at the hilt of the weapon strapped into Vanille's waistcoat—what looked to be a very familiar gunblade.

Fang changed. As Vanille brought it out, she stood still and shocked.

But what was different, was the brightness of her eyes. The discovery, the hope of an existence of a certain someone in this timeline, but what came next were the clouds of uncertainty and fear; what embraced the rest of her expression. Confusion. Why was this here? How had Vanille got a hold of it?

"Where did you get that?" she asked so seriously and importantly that it flinched Vanille, despite her sister understanding her curiosity.

"Huh-Oh, I found it on the floor near a vase I broke, upon seeing the automaton."

"Give me it," Fang grabbed the gunblade carefully from Vanille's hands, and seeing her inspecting it, the redhead pondered, "What do you think this means?" Fang felt the edge of the blade, with the calloused edges of her fingers.  
"Its her's alright." Fang couldn't believe it. The brunette's heart was racing, and Vanille simply watched on at her sister. It seemed evidence of their existence in this time has shattered her perceptions of what time they're in.

"Did they fight here?"

The question on both of their tongues settled into them, and obviously there was no answer for it. Soon Fang gave back the gunblade to Vanille.

"Did you take a peep outside?" Vanille prompted her.

Fang nodded, "Yeah." She got up, a sort of newfound resolve noticed by Vanille, by her toned body's posture. "Your eyes no good here?" She asked Vanille. It took her some seconds but she hummed in affirmation.  
"Let's find the place you woke up in, and fought that mech tomorrow, when the sun's up... This place is too bizarre-it's just abandoned. At least outside we can see where the bloody hell we're going." Vanille chirped at this, she loved the fact that Fang seemed to always make the most sensible decisions when she was motivated like this.

She also loved that idea of exploring this new world below, only now that Fang was here, with her. But her hopes of finding their friends, her family-those were the guiding lights of the endeavour.

With Fang connected with her again, she felt that she could push back her fears-and possible grievances, and simply enjoy the fact that they were alive and living freely once more. "Sounds good! Let's go!"

She left Fang hanging before hearing her make every effort to catch up to her as she descended the stairs with the speed of an Aerora spell. The pit of her stomach was a wrong kind of sick, despite her anticipation to see the world's culture, from what she'd seen from that windowsill.

She wanted to know what happened to her comrades, wanting to know if they were still alive-or if they had lived happy lives. That sadness, melancholy-she hated all over again, but she wanted to evaporate with answers, and not distractions.


End file.
